Azerbaijan, Russia take gold at the European Team Chess Championship

Nov 2, 2009

Double bronze for Ukraine

The European Team Chess Championship took place on 22-30th October in Novi Sad, Serbia. The team of Azerbaijan with a touch of luck declined attacks from Russia and kept the first place which they took up from the very start of the competition. In the last round Azerbaijan beat Netherlands 2.5-1.5 (Stellwagen – Gashimov 0-1) and Russia was shocked by Spain who held them to a 2-2 tie (Morozevich – Vallejo Pons 1-0, Alekseev – Salgado Lopez 0-1). Had Russia won that match, they would have retained the gold medal from 2007 Crete thanks to a better tiebreak score – sum of game points.

Russia took the consoling silver medal, while Ukraine beat Israel 3-1 in the final round to claim the bronze medal with a better tiebreak ahead of the Olympic champions from Armenia. Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine signed 6.0/8 on the first board for the best rating performance on the Championship – 2823.

Women team of Russia was involved in a dramatic race with Georgia, as the two teams singled out on the top ahead of rest of the field. In the last round both teams achieved 2.5-1.5 wins, against Armenia and Romania respectively, but the Russians celebrated the gold medal as they enjoyed better sum of the individual points. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev immediately congratulated the team which defended the gold medal from Crete.

The team of Russia

Azerbaijan players were the stars in the Women’s event as well. Seeded 20th prior to the championship, the girls won against many strong teams and contested the medal until the final moves. However, the seasoned team of Ukraine claimed the bronze, but only after calculating the second tiebreak sum – Buchholz coefficient.